


By Your Side

by LilacNoctua



Series: Worthwhile [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempted Murder, Awkwardness, Blood and Injury, Bodyguard, Canon-Typical Violence, I tried to write something that actually has a plot?, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Stalking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:27:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24701554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilacNoctua/pseuds/LilacNoctua
Summary: “Hey, Gaara, um, what are we supposed to do with this?” He asked, fighting to keep his voice calm.Gaara had been standing beside him silently, with his arms crossed over his chest, also staring at the bed. He turned now to look at Lee with blank eyes and rasped, “It’s a bed, Lee. People like to sleep in them.”“But there are two of us,” Lee pointed out, deciding to cut right to the chase.Lee and Gaara are sent on a risky mission together. Messy feelings and a meddling older brother make it difficult stay focused.
Relationships: Gaara/Rock Lee
Series: Worthwhile [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1729480
Comments: 51
Kudos: 238





	1. The Bodyguard

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to 'Nocturne' and is meant to take place a few weeks after, however it can definitely be read on its own as well.

Rock Lee had fought enemies twice his size, enemies with unbelievably powerful genjutsu and ninjutsu, veteran shinobi with long lists of confirmed kills. He had faced the sharingan of Sasuke Uchiha, and the formidable byakugan of the Hyuga clan. He had even fought Gaara of the Desert and lived to make jokes about it. But now, Rock Lee was panicking.

As for his enemy. . . he was standing in the guest suite of an inn, facing down a large, fluffy, luxurious looking bed. Normally, he’d be overjoyed to check into an inn and be greeted by a bed like this one, especially after almost five days on the road, and in the scorching heat and scouring winds of the desert no less. But today the sight of this bed, sitting boldly in the middle of the small room, was enough to tie his stomach in knots.

“Hey, Gaara, um, what are we supposed to do with this?” He asked, fighting to keep his voice calm.

Gaara had been standing beside him silently, with his arms crossed over his chest, also staring at the bed. He turned now to look at Lee with blank eyes and rasped, “It’s a bed, Lee. People like to sleep in them.”

“But there are two of us,” Lee pointed out, deciding to cut right to the chase.

“Yes, there are,” Gaara agreed. “This would explain why Kankuro kept laughing when we parted ways outside of town. He was in charge of making the bookings.”

Lee was not normally a vengeful person, but he made a mental note to give Kankuro a good swift kick once the mission was over.

“The joke is on him though,” Gaara continued. “Because we really only need one.”

Lee nearly swallowed his own tongue. “During missions Neji and Tenten and I have often had to sleep together on one small bed or in the same sleeping bag,” Lee spluttered. “But this is. . . now. . . we cannot. . .”

“What I mean,” Gaara said quickly. “Is that if we’re going to sleep at all, we’ll need to take it in turns.”

“Oh, excellent!” Lee cried. “We can stay up all night like when we were on our way to the Land of Tea! I had a lot of fun when we did that.”

But Gaara shook his head and grimaced. “Not this time, I’ve been awake for six days now, I need to sleep soon. Also, remember the purpose of our mission. If we're trying to draw out my stalker, it would be better if we were both well rested and alert. We’ll take turns.”

Lee nodded resolutely. “Yes, we will take turns. That is very reasonable.” 

He looked sidelong at Gaara who was still frowning at the bed as though it had done him a personal injury. 

“I mean, not that I would not want. . . I do not mean to say that I do not. . . um, it is just. . . it is too. . .” He fumbled for the words and finally gave up with a frustrated sigh.

“I know what you mean,” Gaara said quietly, still resolutely not looking at Lee. “I’m not like Neji and Tenten, and you are not like Temari and Kankuro. Or anyone else really. We need to keep our focus on this mission now.”

“Right!” Lee said desperately. “Let us go over the details again.”

“Of course,” Gaara agreed, glad for any topic of conversation that was not the one lone bed in the centre of the room. He pulled the mission scroll out of his pocket and spread it over the table. “The farmers in this village grow a crop that is essential to food pill production and I am here to negotiate a new supply contract. Normally I would come with Temari and Kankuro, or Baki, or any of the other advisors. But there has been a shinobi dogging my footsteps since roughly the time we got back to the Land of Tea. My ANBU intercepted him trying to break into my house but he escaped. We have yet to learn what he wants or who he’s working for.”

“That is why you have come to this trade meeting with only me as your bodyguard,” Lee said. “If he believes you are minimally guarded he might make his move.”

“Exactly.” Gaara nodded. “You were the perfect shinobi for the job because you are frequently underestimated by other ninja and I like being near you.”

“What?” Lee asked, surprised.

“I like spending time with you. I like listening to you talk. You don’t annoy me and I never wish you would go away,” Gaara explained. His voice was carefully expressionless, but he turned his face away as he spoke. 

“Oh. Okay,” Lee breathed. 

“Your team and mine are standing by, watching and waiting. They'll provide back up once we have trapped him," Gaara continued, all business again.

"I wonder what he could possibly want," Lee mused. 

During the initial mission briefing, Tenten had suggested that the stalker might just be a lovesick admirer. Gaara had shaken his head and folded his arms saying, "Rumour has gotten around recently that none of them are really my type." Maybe Lee had imagined it, but he could have sworn that the Kazekage's eyes had flicked towards him for the briefest moment as he spoke. 

~~~~

The rest of the day was spent in meetings, which Lee considered to be a form of cruel and unusual torture. He stood behind Gaara’s chair, alert and still, desperately trying not to fidget as officials droned on about tariffs and insurance, shipping and stakeholders. Gaara had told him at the beginning of the mission, in his most stern Kazekage voice, that bodyguards didn’t do push-ups, squats, handstands, or any other form of training (not even stretching!), while on duty. They just stood and watched for threats.

_ If I cannot stand perfectly still for the next hour,  _ Lee challenged himself,  _ then I will . . .  _ a flicker of movement outside the window caught his eye. It had only been a split second, but that had been enough. Lee now knew two things: there was a shinobi watching them from the window of the building opposite, and he was a Sand shinobi but not one of their party, nor one he recognized.

He moved slowly around the room so that he was standing next to the window with his back to it and made a tiny gesture with his head towards the window across the alley. Although Gaara was still deep in conversation with the village’s treasurer, he followed Lee’s movements with his eyes, watching the window for a moment, then giving a tiny nod, so quick that Lee barely saw it. 

To cover for his movements on this side of the room, Lee poured a cup of tea from the trolley by the window and offered it to Gaara. 

“Thank you,” Gaara said absently, his fingers brushing over Lee’s as he took the teacup from his hand. Lee jumped and a few drops of scalding tea leapt out of the cup onto the back of Gaara’s hand, soaking into the sand armour. Gaara waved away his babbled apologies and handed him a clump of wet sand.

“Hold onto that for me until it dries,” he instructed. Lee cradled it carefully in his hands as he would a baby bird that had fallen from its nest.

“Lord Kazekage,” one of the officials spoke up. “You come to our trade talks in armour?”

“Please do not be offended.” Gaara offered them his best diplomatic smile. “I never take it off.” 

This seemed to appease the officials, but Lee knew all too well that Gaara was lying. In quiet moments alone, he often conjured up from his memory the feeling of Gaara’s forehead tucked against the crook of his neck as they danced, Gaara’s hands in his, and that brief moment at their last parting when Gaara had brushed his fingers across Lee’s cheek. He was left to wonder now why Gaara hadn’t worn his armour that evening. Did he really trust Lee so much? 

~~~~

Dinner managed to be an even more miserable affair than all the meetings. Despite being ravenously hungry himself, Lee had to test Gaara’s food for poisons and then stand behind his chair scanning the room for signs of the enemy, all the while ignoring the rumblings of his own stomach. The official seated beside Gaara kept up a steady stream of absurdly boring commentary about crop yields and profit margins while Gaara offered polite remarks and the occasional understanding nod as he picked restlessly at his food. 

Dessert was brought around, then coffee. Lee’s legs were numb from standing still and he couldn’t remember the last time he had been so bored. He was beginning to think the evening would never end when an official approached Gaara to invite him to join them in the lounge for drinks and cards. And to meet his lovely young niece. Lee wanted to cry.

“That’s very thoughtful, thank you,” Gaara said smoothly. “But I’m afraid I am rather tired from my long journey, and must decline for this evening. Good night, gentlemen, ladies.” 

He stood and gestured for Lee to follow him out into the hall.

“One thing before we go,” Gaara murmured, walking briskly down one hallway after another, sniffing as though he were Akamaru on an enemy’s trail. They arrived in a vast kitchen where Gaara sweet talked the staff into giving him a large container of leftovers.

“Thank you!” Lee breathed. “I am starving.”

“I thought so. Sorry, I know guard duty is not easy for you.”

“Nonsense,” Lee babbled. “It is good training!”

“In case an enemy shinobi ever attempts to literally bore you to death?” Gaara quipped. Lee was finding that he quite liked when Gaara tried to make jokes. It seemed to be happening more frequently recently.

They arrived back at the inn and Lee locked the door after them, methodically checked all of the possible hiding places in the room and its attached bath, then unthinkingly threw himself across the width of the bed, face down in the fluffy duvet.

“How do you do this everyday?” He groaned. “It is so frustrating.”

He felt the mattress dip and turned his head to find Gaara lying next to him, an arm’s length away staring up at the ceiling, the gourd left on the floor at the foot of the bed.

“I can do this everyday because I have good reason too,” Gaara said softly. “I do what I have to for my village.”

His words drifted through Lee’s mind without sticking. He couldn’t find any words to answer with. His thoughts had swung back around to the problem of the only bed, and stubbornly refused to focus on anything else. Night had fallen, they had officially turned in for the evening; sooner or later, they were going to have to sleep.  _ We are going to take turns. It will be okay,  _ Lee reminded himself. He turned his face again to look at Gaara and found him staring back.

“I’m going to take a shower,” Gaara said, but made no move to stand up.

“Okay,” Lee replied. He didn't move either.

The moment dragged itself out, both of them staring at each other in uneasy silence, until Gaara abruptly slid off the bed and hurried away into the bathroom.

Lee went to sit at the little table and wolfed down his dinner. He tried very hard not to listen to the sound of water hitting the tiled floor of the shower, forced himself not to think about that water splashing against Gaara’s bare, unarmoured skin. He patted the inner pocket of his vest where he had stowed the little clump of dampened sand, alongside the tiny handful of sand he had found there after their journey to the Land of Tea. 

As soon as he had finished eating, he began looking around the guest suite for something to occupy his mind. This was the best accommodation that the small rural village had to offer, in the attic above a tea shop. So, while the room was clean and comfortable, it was also small and bare. There were no books, no television, nothing but the big bed, which he was starting to imagine was gloating. Training then, would have to do. It had never failed him before. He would begin with three hundred push ups, then three hundred sit ups, then three hundred squats. Just a quick workout before bed.

He was only on the hundred and third push up when the sound of the water stopped. He did not want to think about warm, soft towels, or how nice it would be to wrap one around Gaara as he stepped out of the shower, dripping and shiny clean. He started his push ups again at one. On the twentieth, the hair dryer started. It droned on and on, irritating, and much less distracting. He made it to the end of his push ups and started on the sit ups. He was on his fifty third squat when Gaara emerged from the bathroom, fully dressed, gourd in place on his back, the black lines around his eyes crisp and freshly inked. His hair had been meticulously dried so it wouldn’t interfere with the sand armour, but Lee suspected he must have combed it with his fingers instead of a brush as it stuck out haphazardly in all directions.

Lee paused mid-squat and blurted out, “You look cute.”

Gaara’s face shifted through several minute and unreadable expressions in the space of a few seconds, as Lee, still frozen halfway through a squat, tried not to panic.

“Uh, thank you.” Gaara ducked his head and gestured at the open bathroom door. “All yours.”

Lee scurried towards the shower, somehow much sweatier than he should have been after such an easy workout. He paused in the doorway as an awful thought struck him. “But Gaara, if I go in there, who is guarding you?”

“I am,” Gaara said.

“But -”

Gaara held up one hand in a silencing gesture. “You know as well as anyone, I don’t actually need a bodyguard. It’s just improper to not have one, and your superior taijutsu makes you the best complement to the gaps in my own skills. You don’t have to wear yourself out hovering around me.”

“Okay,” Lee agreed. “But you can yell if you need me.”

He hurried away into the bathroom and Gaara climbed onto the bed. He sat in the middle of it and imagined what would happen if he did yell while Lee was in the shower. Would he come rushing out of the bathroom, covered in soap suds and wearing only a towel, to fight whatever enemy Gaara had encountered? He struggled to squash that thought, but found himself instead imagining what might happen if they didn’t need to take turns sleeping. Would Lee sleep beside him in this big, comfortable bed? Would he put his arms around Gaara and hold him close, share his warmth, maybe nestle his face against Gaara’s hair as he had when they were dancing together? 

Gaara shook his head hard. This was a mission, and a risky one at that. He needed to focus. He was going to have serious words with Kankuro when this was all over. What was he thinking trapping them alone together in a tiny room like this with only one bed? What did he think was going to happen? He knew how difficult Gaara was finding it to navigate these feelings, how much he was struggling to accept that someone like Lee might want to be close to someone like him. And Lee seemed almost as flustered and upset by the situation as he was. He should have expected something like this really; Kankuro had always been a twisted bastard.

Lee burst out of the bathroom, humming to himself, dressed in his pajamas and rubbing a towel through his hair.

Gaara squinted at the front of Lee’s bright pink sweatshirt and read out, “Deadly Damsel Blade Oil: Perfumed and Poisonous.”

“Huh,” Lee stopped in his tracks and looked down at his chest. “I guess this must be Tenten’s.”

“Your squad shares clothes?” Gaara asked, shuddering at a mental image of Kankuro in one of Temari’s outfits.

“Not intentionally. Neji and Tenten once accidentally wore each other’s pants for a whole week without noticing.” Lee laughed. “But that was not as bad as the time Gai-sensei mistook my suit for his a few years ago. I was much skinnier than Gai-sensei then.”

And there was the most disturbing mental image yet. 

“Do you all live together?” Gaara had moved in with his siblings many years ago, but they all went out of their way to keep their things separate and were very protective of their own spaces.

“No, but we all stay at Gai-sensei’s place a lot. And Neji likes to stay with me when he is avoiding the rest of the Hyugas. We keep clothes and toothbrushes and stuff at each other’s places, but things get mixed up.”

He lifted his arms to resume scrubbing the towel through his hair and the hem of his shirt lifted to reveal just a glimpse of bare skin above his low slung pajama pants. Gaara looked away quickly.

“How are you going to fight in pajamas, Lee?” he demanded.

“Easily.” Lee shrugged and grinned reassuringly. He tossed the towel over the back of a chair and pulled his vest on over the pink sweatshirt. 

“Do you mind if I sleep first?” Gaara asked. “I’m exhausted.”

Lee heard the strain in his voice and nodded enthusiastically. “I was going to suggest that. Go ahead.”

“Thank you. Wake me when it’s my turn on watch.” With that Gaara shuffled under the luxurious covers of the bed, still fully dressed and wearing his gourd. Lee chose to say nothing about it. They were on a mission after all, even if he had every intention of allowing Gaara to sleep for as long as he wanted. 

~~~~

Sitting at the table, poring over the mission scroll again by the light of one small lamp, Lee listened as Gaara’s breathing slowed. He began to murmur, caught in a dream, and Lee, gripped by a reckless curiosity, rose from his chair and tip-toed closer. He had never actually seen Gaara sleep in all the years they had been friends, and he expected that Gaara would sleep like a corpse on a bier, hands folded neatly on his chest, dark eyelids like the empty sockets of a skull in the shadowy room. Instead, he found Gaara sleeping curled into a tight ball, his hands clutching the duvet in front of his face so that he was visible only as a misshapen round lump under the covers, and a tuft of bright red hair against the pillow with the  _ Love  _ mark just visible beneath. 

Lee was overcome with an sudden intense wave of affection and protectiveness. He sat down heavily on the floor beside the bed, leaning his back against the mattress, left breathless by the force of his own feelings.

_ Gai-sensei,  _ he thought,  _ I have no idea what this is or what I am supposed to do now. But you were right about him. _


	2. The Assassin

At first Lee didn’t know what woke him. He was still sitting on the floor beside the bed, the clock on the nightstand read 3:52. Then he felt it again. Something inside his pocket twitched. He put his hand over it, puzzled, and realized it was the sand, swirling and jumping inside his pocket in agitation. Behind him he heard a rustling sound from inside the gourd. Gaara slept on but his sand was awake, and maybe it was just Lee’s imagination running wild in the pre-dawn hours but he was certain it was anxious. Then another sound, barely audible, the creaking of a floorboard in the hall. So this was it then, the moment he had come here for. Memories surfaced before his eyes of Akatsuki robes, a fight against his own image that had dragged on for hours, Gaara lifeless and stiff in Naruto’s arms. Something deep in his soul roared and the sand in his pocket writhed furiously.

Although it pained him to leave Gaara’s side, he crossed the room silently and stood in the shadows beside the door.

Ever so slowly, the lock turned, the door creaked open and a man stepped inside. Not noticing Lee, he crossed towards the bed, drawing a tanbo from his belt, lacquered in black so shiny that it gleamed like obsidian. When the man was halfway to the bed, Lee swung the door shut, locked it and stepped out of the shadows.

“That is far enough.”

The man turned slowly to face him.

“How cocky our Kazekage has gotten. Travelling abroad with only one foreign ninja as a bodyguard. But then, you’re not really a ninja at all, are you? Konoha must be truly desperate to have promoted someone like you to chunin, let alone allowing you to attend their ninja academy in the first place.” As he spoke, Lee realized that he knew this voice and this face, if not the name that went with it. He had last seen this man in Suna, acting as a bodyguard for a member of the governing council. He let the taunts slide past, this was why he had been chosen for the mission after all.

“What do you want? Why are you following Gaara?” He asked. He knew that behind the man, Gaara was awake. Tendrils of sand snaked silently out of the window to alert the rest of their team who waited nearby. Lee now needed to keep the intruder’s attention for as long as possible so that he would not notice.

“I want nothing with him, I just want him dead.” The ninja’s voice was like ice.

“But why?” Lee asked, genuinely shocked.

“He will bring our village to ruin,” the man hissed. “Do you think a man can carry evil within him since birth and not turn to evil himself? Gaara may think that the village has forgotten his true nature, but not all of us are fooled. He should have been put down like a mad dog long ago. Councilman Kiyomori should have been appointed Kazekage and we intend to make it so.”

“We?” Lee repeated, a feeling like cold fingers running down his spine. 

“Foolish boy. Do you think I act alone? Do you think I am the only shinobi in Suna who can still see reason? Who still cares for the safety of our village? Who knows that you Leaf ninja will bring nothing but betrayal and death?” The man spat. “Leave, boy. This doesn’t concern you and never has. Go back to your village.”

“If you believe I will do that, then you are even crazier than you sound,” Lee said.

The man lunged forward and Lee sprang into a high kick. The Sand ninja blocked with the black staff and Lee fell to the floor with a strangled scream. The tanbo glowed briefly with chakra, not the assassin's, but Lee’s, torn painfully from its pathways as the weapon made contact. His right leg was now numb and heavy, a useless weight that he could not stand on or fight with. Beneath the pain of having his chakra torn away, this numbness felt similar to a Gentle Fist attack that Lee knew all too well. He had just enough time to snatch his headband out of his vest pocket and use it to bind his right ankle to his thigh so that the useless leg would not get in his way. Not a big deal, he told himself, he could fight on one leg easily.

The ninja came in for a second attack and Lee dropped onto his left knee and spun behind him, his injured leg tucked against his body. He slammed his elbow into the back of his attacker's thigh, and then launched himself high into the air to deliver a crushing punch to the man’s collarbone from above, with the full weight of his falling body behind the blow. The assassin crashed to the floor and Lee came down on top of him, unable to land properly with his injured leg. He rolled to the side and bounced upright, careful to position himself so that the assassin would have to stand with his back to Gaara in order to keep his eyes on Lee. The two ninja stood staring at each other now. Lee balanced on one foot, the assassin stood lopsided with his shoulder at an unnatural angle, weight distributed unevenly to favour one foot.

“You’re finished,” the man growled.

“No.” Gaara’s voice rasped from the shadows behind him. “He isn’t.” 

Sand shot forth from the gourd, holding the assassin fast. He winced as it pressed down on his broken collarbone. 

“The sand monster rears its ugly head,” the ninja snarled. “Shukaku may be gone, but we all know that the real monster is you,  _ Lord Kazekage. _ ” He spat the title like a curse.

Gaara ignored him. “So you work for Councilman Kiyomori? How many of you are there?”

“Enough,” the ninja said, laughing bitterly. “Even if I fail, we are your friends, your ANBU, your council. One of us will succeed.”

“Tell me everything,” Gaara commanded.

“Or what? You’ll torture me? Kill me?” The ninja taunted. “Go ahead Demon Kazekage, say it. Hold up your hand and say 'Sand Burial _.'  _ Crush me to death like you have countless others. Without a thought, without remorse. Make me a martyr for our cause. You’re nothing but an animal, and animals can’t fight their natures.”

Lee could see Gaara’s hand shaking as he held it out in front of him, commanding the sand which imprisoned their attacker. Awkwardly hopping on one leg, he moved closer. 

“You are not,” he said gently. “This man does not know you, and he is wrong. Do not let his cruel words hurt you.”

“Isn’t that a sweet lie.” The Sand ninja laughed darkly. Gaara’s whole arm was trembling now, the sand wavered and with one vicious snarl the assassin tore himself free and charged at him. 

“No!” Lee shouted, throwing himself forward.

The ninja turned in midair and struck at Lee instead. Lee could not stop his forward momentum and brought his hands up to protect himself, but too slowly. The shining tanbo caught him full across the face. Lee felt his nose break and then his whole head erupted in the most intense pain he had ever experienced. He saw white light and knew nothing more.

He did not hear the shattering of glass or the whine of shuriken flying through the space where the window had been to pin the attacker against the wall with perfect accuracy. He was not aware of the Black Ant swooping into the room to trap the traitor inside. The sounds of six more ninja alighting through the smashed window and Gai-sensei’s booming voice calling out orders and encouragement could not rouse him. Nor did he know that Gaara had run the few paces to reach him and skidded to his knees among the broken glass, gathering Lee in his arms. He lay still despite Gaara urgently calling for him to wake up as the blood which flowed from Lee’s shattered nose and ruptured eardrums soaked into Gaara’s shirt, red on red.

~~~~

When Lee finally awoke again, he was in bed. At first he thought it must be the bed at the inn that had been mocking him. But it had an unpleasantly firm mattress, a thin blanket, and all he could smell was dried blood. Alarmed, he struggled to open his eyes and look around. The first thing he saw was a card table, piled high with papers and scrolls. Barely visible behind that was a figure in a wide brimmed green hat, and a long white robe, scribbling furiously on a piece of paper.

“Gaara?” Lee tried to say. His voice came out hoarse and scratchy from disuse.

“Lee!” Gaara sprang to his feet, upsetting his chair and the card table in the process. Papers scattered across the floor of what Lee now realized was a hospital room. Scrolls unspooled and ink spilled as Gaara flung himself through the mess to land on the edge of Lee’s bed, grab his hand and squeeze it so hard that Lee was almost worried he’d break it. 

“You’re awake. You’re okay,” Gaara breathed, relief evident in his usually calm voice.

“Yeah,” Lee croaked. “Where are we?”

“Suna,” Gaara replied. “Gai carried you back himself.”

Lee struggled to sit up. “How long have I been sleeping?!”

Gaara let go of his hand and grabbed his shoulders to push him back down. “Stay still, you’re not supposed to move. It’s been almost three days.”

“Three days?” Lee squawked.

“The rest of your team has gone already,” Gaara went on. “They took that ninja’s weapon to the Hokage for further analysis. It’s a nasty thing. It seems that it’s designed to sap chakra at the point of contact while also sending out a nearly undetectable shockwave that temporarily deadens muscles and nerves. Being hit in the head could have killed you.”

“I think I am okay,” Lee said slowly.

“You should be now,” Gaara replied. “The doctors were able to fix your nose and eardrums, and your chakra is recovering well, they say. It’s a relief to see you awake, to be able to talk to you again.”

“You do not need to worry about me. I will be right as rain in no time,” Lee announced. “I have had much worse.”

Gaara turned his head so that the veil of his hat hid his face, but not quickly enough that Lee failed to see the shame in his eyes.

“It is you I am worried about,” Lee continued. “He hurt you much worse than me.”

“He didn’t hurt me at all,” Gaara protested, still not looking at Lee.

“Gaara, I know for a fact that cruel words hurt far worse than any weapon ever could.”

Slowly Gaara turned his head back towards Lee, sea green eyes wide.

“You know those things he said were not true,” Lee challenged. 

Gaara sighed dejectedly. “What does it matter? If that’s the way my own people see me. . .”

“They do not. They love you.” Lee said fiercely. “Anyone who knows you like I do, knows that nothing that man said was true. He said those things only to hurt you.”

Gaara stared at him for a few moments then made a sign in front of Lee’s face.

“Release,” he commanded.

“What was that for?” Lee asked.

“I have wondered for some time now if you have been placed under some sort of jutsu,” Gaara explained. “The way you act towards me, talk about me, after everything I’ve done . . . after everything I did to  _ you. _ ”

Lee made a sound of indignation and began spluttering. “You think. . . you . . .you. . .”

Lee grabbed Gaara and pulled him down against his chest in a rough and awkward hug.

“Listen carefully, Gaara,” Lee said through gritted teeth, shaking him slightly as he spoke. “You are special. Your people chose you as Kazekage because they love and respect you. You have friends. You have. . . _ me.  _ You are not a monster or a demon. You are the very opposite of those things.” 

“If you say so,” Gaara said flatly, but Lee could feel him smiling against his chest. Gaara’s weight against his injured body was painful but Lee continued to hold him there anyway.

“Should I come back later?” 

Gaara sprang away from Lee and whipped around to glare at his brother, leaning in the doorframe.

“Good to see you awake, man,” Kankuro addressed Lee. “The council is not happy at all about having to hold all their meetings in here.”

“In here?” Lee asked.

“Gaara refused to leave until you woke up. We’ve been busy since we got back trying to sort out this rogue councilman and his followers. Treason isn’t exactly a small matter, you know, and it would be better if the Kazekage would deal with it from his office instead of your hospital room.” Kankuro grinned at him.

Lee turned to look at Gaara, who had busied himself gathering up the scattered papers and looking anywhere but at Lee.

It was another three days before the doctor finally relented and allowed Lee to get out of bed. Mostly because Lee had taken the order to  _ Just stay in bed, dammit _ as permission to do push ups, sit ups, and any other exercise he could think of on the bed itself. Gaara had been persuaded to move back into his office to hold meetings and assign missions, much to the relief of his subordinates. He still appeared in the hospital shortly after dinner every evening to interrogate the doctors about Lee’s recovery and scold him for attempting to train.

Lee suspected that Kankuro was under orders to keep an eye on him as he showed up several times a day. Lee didn’t mind; he quite enjoyed Kankuro’s company.

“Okay, here’s the situation. Are you fit to travel?” Kankuro asked him as soon as the doctor had given Lee permission to leave the hospital.

“I should think so,” Lee said. “I feel perfectly fine. I do not see what all the fuss was about. It was just chakra depletion and a broken nose.”

“Don’t forget the eardrums,” Kankuro reminded him.

“I barely noticed that. It did not hurt.” Lee waved him off.

“Okay, sure. So the thing is, it’s not that we aren’t enjoying having you here, but I’m taking you back to Konoha today, if you can make it.” Kankuro explained.

“Okay?” Lee said.

“Look, Gaara told me not to say anything to you,” Kankuro whispered, looking around warily. “But the Hokage has sent us a bird every day since your team got back, asking us to arrange to return you as well. We were supposed to send you by cart if you couldn’t walk. She says they need you back.”

Lee blinked in surprise. “Why was I not supposed to know this?”

“Beats me,” Kankuro shrugged. “Personally I think he just doesn’t want to let you out of his sight, until he’s certain you’re completely recovered. He thinks it was his fault, you know.”

“That is silly. It was just part of the mission!” Lee protested.

“I know that,” Kankuro said. “But he won’t listen. And he’s going to cause a diplomatic incident if he keeps this up. I know your Hokage likes him and he’s got a lot of friends over in Konoha, but I’m worried they’ll start to think we’re holding you hostage, which is technically an act of war, so. . .”

“I will pack my things!” Lee exclaimed. “But I would like to say good-bye to Gaara before I go.”

“Do you have to?” Kankuro asked, a definite note of pleading in his voice. “I know you two are, you know, close or whatever, but I don't want to know what he'd do if he caught me trying to smuggle you out of the village behind his back.”

Lee raised his chin defiantly. “Consider it payback for that prank with the bed.”

Kankuro turned pale under his make up. “No, come on. Don’t do this to me, man. It wasn’t a prank; I was just trying to help. I saw the way things were headed and just thought you two could use a little push, you know. Gaara is shy and you’re kind of. . . well, you know. I didn’t mean any harm by it. And believe me, I’ve gotten more than enough shit about it from Temari.”

Lee smiled and bumped Kankuro with his shoulder. "I am only messing with you; you know I cannot hold a grudge. I will leave the payback to Gaara."

“Okay, okay, sure, whatever. Just please, I’m literally begging you, let’s just go. Look, I’ll tell him that it’s my fault, that I forced you to leave without saying goodbye. Seriously, we’re desperate.”

“Okay,” Lee agreed. “I would not want to be the source of conflict between our villages.”

“Thank you!” Kankuro cried.

Within minutes they were rushed towards the gate, Kankuro glancing around anxiously the whole time. As they hurried through the long, shadowed corridor that led through the wall, the sand beneath their feet began to churn. Gaara rose out of the ground in front of them, his arms crossed over his chest and a wicked gleam in his eye. 

“Kankuro,” he rasped. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Gaara,” Lee said, stepping forward. “Please, do not be angry. Kankuro told me about the messages from Lady Tsunade. I must head back immediately,”

Gaara smiled with his teeth, an expression that still always looked deeply disturbing on him. “The Hokage never sent any messages, Lee. Temari and I have been forging them to mess with Kankuro. You know, as retribution for the inn booking thing.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Kankuro shrieked. “I’ve been so stressed!”

“I sent a message to Tsunade just now to tell her you’re on your way,” Gaara told Lee, ignoring his brother who was still muttering and swearing behind Lee. “Kankuro will make sure you get to our border okay. Your team will probably meet you in Fire Country if I know them. I’ve asked your Hokage to write to me when you get back. I really am worried about you, you know.”

“I am just fine,” Lee protested. Then, a thought struck him. “Could I write to you? Instead of the Hokage?”

“I would like that,” Gaara said. He stepped forward and hugged Lee clumsily, just a little closer and for just a moment longer than was really proper. “I’ll see you again soon.”

“You will,” Lee promised with a thumbs up.

~~~~

Back in Konoha, Lee borrowed a pen from the Hokage’s desk and held it over a piece of paper. He didn’t move. 

“Uh, Lee?” Tenten asked.

Lee looked at her with an expression of pure panic on his face. “What do I say?”

“Just tell him you got here safely,” Tenten said.

“No, no.” Neji cut in. “Lady Tsunade could have written that herself. It should be more personal.”

“Write him a poem,” Gai suggested. “About the ache you’ll feel in your heart until you are reunited. About how all of your dreams will be about him until you can hold him in your arms again. About how -”

“No! Too intense!” Tenten snapped.

Tsunade sat at the desk with her head in her hands. “Hurry up and write the damn letter, or I'll write it for you."

"Just write what you're really thinking, Lee," Sakura suggested. 

"Okay. I can do that."

He put pen to paper and wrote:

_ Dear Gaara, _

_ I have arrived back in Konoha and feel as good as new. I cannot wait to see you again. I hope it will be soon. _

_ Yours,  _

_ Lee _

_ PS - For your sake, it was worth it. _

**Author's Note:**

> Thank so much you for reading! Feel free to visit me on [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/lilac-writes/) and say hello!
> 
> If you enjoyed this story, the next part of the series will be along soon!


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